VA High School Denies Recognition to Student Pro-Life Club

The following are excerpts from a September 19, 2007 article appearing on LifeNews.com.

“Alexandria, Virginia School Subject of Lawsuit Over Denying Pro-Life Group”
by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com – September 19, 2007

A Virginia school is the subject of a lawsuit from a pro-life law firm after it denied official recognition to a student pro-life club but granted official recognition to student groups that focus on other issues. Colonial Forge High School is the latest to come under fire for discriminating against pro-life students.

A student at the school wanted to start a pro-life student club on campus and applied for her club to become officially recognized.

…

Stafford County School officials denied the student’s application, stating that her pro-life club “does not meet the standard of a direct curricular link.”

But no policy exists that requires clubs to be curriculum-related, nor are there any guidelines that govern how such a determination is made, according to [Alliance Defense Fund] attorney David Cortman.

…

“The student we represent wanted to start a pro-life club at her school, just as other students have been allowed to start their own clubs, yet school officials denied her and not the others,” he said. “Under the law, school officials cannot discriminate on the basis of an arbitrary decision about the worthiness of the club’s subject matter.”

< end of excerpts from article >

Read the entire news article here:
http://www.lifenews.com/state2496.html